The Weslaco Area Chamber of Commerce held its annual membership and awards luncheon Oct. 30 at the Knapp Medical Conference Center. Chamber recognitions included Man, Woman and Business of the Year, as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award. Also receiving recognition were Volunteer and Board Member of the Year recipients. Man of the Year The 2019 Man of the Year is Joe Vidales, Weslaco’s resident expert historian. Vidales has been…
McAllen is once again receiving accolades as being a safe city in the United States, this time by the website 24/7Wall St. The ranking puts McAllen as four on the list of 294 midsize and large U.S. cities tracked by the FBI. All cities have a populations of at least 100,000. To identify the 50 safest U.S. cities, 24/7 Wall St. reviews violent crime rates in cities with at least…
Gary Glick, president of the nonprofit group Friends of RGV Reef, said recreational red snapper fishing generates several times the economic force of commercial red snapper fishing. People who come to fish also spend money on food and lodging, gas, tackle, charter trips, etc. Glick estimates that Friends of RGV Reef has spent about $400,000 on deploying reef material so far. The group has managed to do it for roughly…
Carlos X. Guerra of La Muneca Cattle Company looks like your average rancher. But he’s not. He devotes fully half his time to marketing: promoting purebred cattle. These are the registered Polled Brahman and Simbrah his family raises to sell seed stock (live cattle, semen and embryos). “Two thirds of promotion is motion. No matter what business you are in, you must be visible,” says Guerra. His mantra of “No…
The negotiations that led to the creation of a single Rio Grande Valley metropolitan planning organization meant more than being a positive sign of regional goodwill. It also spurred the Texas Department of Transportation to announce it would spend $1.1 billion over the next decade. The money is solely for highway and mobility projects in the Valley. The state agency believed the merger of three Valley MPOs into a single…
Emily’s Meals is an organization dedicated to feeding 40 people every day. And it all started with the innocent question of a 6-year-old girl. Emily and her father Rick Aguirre went to the grocery store one normal afternoon. As they were leaving, Emily saw her first homeless person. Her dad took this moment to teach her about the act of charity, so they bought a meal and gave it to…
In Spanish, the word vida means “life.” In the Rio Grande Valley, VIDA means a much better life for individuals and families and a stronger economy for communities across Deep South Texas. The Valley Initiative for Development and Advancement is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1995 by Valley Interfaith and a group of local business leaders. They realized providing people with education, training and support to obtain higher-paying jobs would…
The first Magic Valley Electric Cooperative utility pole went up in 1937. It was on Mile 9 West in Weslaco. The cooperative was in business and would establish seven principles that would guide it. The seventh principle is one that is at the heart of what Magic Valley has done for more than 80 years. It’s “Concern For Community,” as the value states. This is a value that still lives…
The holidays are around the corner, reminding us of the countless blessings in our lives. For others, this may be a reminder of what they don’t have. Fortunately, there are several opportunities for the community to come together and give back to those in need. One of the ways we can aim to do so is by taking part in volunteering at Food Bank RGV. “The RGV is just a…
In June of 2018, the Rio Grande Valley was hit by a storm of natural disaster proportions. Homes and businesses saw damage and some even complete destruction. People were left displaced and with little to nothing left in their possession. As we know, disasters are not a planned or controlled situation. Many people are not financially, physically or mentally prepared for a disaster. Many times, people are at a loss…